Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

The issue of vacant properties that Senator Higgins raised is a really important one. I take the point that this will give Revenue a proper opportunity to analyse and quantify the situation, but we know that roughly one in 33 houses is empty, which adds up to about 250,000. About 60,000 of those are holiday homes. We also know we are in a housing crisis like no other. Any levers that could be used to get some of those vacant properties into use would make a massive humanitarian difference to people. You need only walk around any provincial town in the country to see the evidence in front of you of the level of vacancy that exists in those towns. I urge the Minister to see whether there is a stick we can add to the carrot in respect of the grant funding of these buildings to get them into use.

The second issue I wish to raise relates to the equalisation fund going. In many ways, often as an Opposition Deputy you are asked by the Government to trust in the Government in the future. We are being asked to delete the equalisation fund but are being told that some day we will have a solution to make up for it. We do not have the details in front of us but the Government is saying "trust us". It would be great if we could make sure, especially given the country we live in and the lopsided spatial development we have, that we are confident there is a solution in place now for those 20 counties that benefit from that equalisation.

Maybe the Minister could address those two questions first before I go onto the rest.